IGBT in the Energy Generation Sector of Fossil Fuels

Among the legacy power generation technologies, gas turbine power plants are being deployed due to the discovery of large amounts of natural gas in the United States and Australia. A permanent magnet generator is run directly from a gas turbine without a gear-box for enhanced reliability. The generator terminal voltage is at a nominal 600-Hz which must be rectified and then converted to a well regulated 50 or 60 Hz AC power for transmission to points of use. IGBT power switches are now being used for this application because of the availability of high voltage, high-current modules from many manufacturers. A 1.6 Giga-Watt gas power plant can be designed using 6 modular 300 kVA three phase voltage source IGBT stacks with 6 IGBTs in a typical bridge configuration. The design allows full control of the AC current and power factor on the grid-side. The IGBT stacks are paralleled to satisfy the 1.6 Giga-Watt power requirements. The availability of intelligent IGBT power modules with gate drivers and protection circuits has accelerated the adoption of this technology.